Oh no, not another story on social media for small business

I know you are probably ready for a new topic other than social media for small business but I want to give you an important quick heads-up and link (hat tip to Ramon Ray over at smallBiztechnology.com for linking to this). I thought of just adding this as an addendum to my last video Podcast on social media but it’s too important to be that easily missed. What’s special about this article is its broad perspective. It gives you a picture of social media and blogs over the last two years, making it a worthy primer on the topic.

One of the points I made in my series is that aspects of social media (like blogs) have been over hyped. That’s resulted in people tuning them out – especially companies that look to more proven and mainstream ways to advertise and market their business.

Here’s an excerpt

“Monday 9:30 a.m. It’s time for a frank talk. And no, it can’t wait. We know, we know: Most of you are sick to death of blogs. Don’t even want to hear about these millions of online journals that link together into a vast network. And yes, there’s plenty out there not to like. Self-obsession, politics of hate, and the same hunger for fame that has people lining up to trade punches on The Jerry Springer Show. Name just about anything that’s sick in our society today, and it’s on parade in the blogs. On lots of them, even the writing stinks.

Go ahead and bellyache about blogs. But you cannot afford to close your eyes to them, because they’re simply the most explosive outbreak in the information world since the Internet itself. And they’re going to shake up just about every business—including yours.”

4 Responses to "Oh no, not another story on social media for small business"

Social media has strong potential, but there has to be a meeting point somewhere. It seems as if a lot of social media types sell blogs, Twitter, etc heavily on the web, but don’t see to reach out to traditional media. The simple fact is this: most people don’t read blogs. They read the newspaper and watch TV, and possibly go to their Yahoo default page for news. If social media types reach out to traditional outlets and truly get a presence, perhaps more small businesses will spend their precious resources to get a stronger presence in the web community.

Hi Michelle, Thanks so much for stopping by and commenting. I’m not sure if I completely understand your comment about how social media types aren’t reaching out to traditional media. Maybe you can clarify if you stop back by. I’d appreciate it.

I’ll start by acknowledging that there are many people that don’t use social media like blogs (I’ll comment on this further in a minute).

But, blogs are just one aspect of social media. If you look at the category and realize it is also things like reviews on Google Local then the practical side of social media becomes more obvious. The three part video series I just concluded (see episodes 9a, 9b, 9c) is all about these kinds of practical applications of social media.

Not that I’d hesitate to recommend blog marketing for small business. I’m all over it and for good reason. Small business people (until now) had to pay big bucks to media companies to gain access to new customers. Those days are over. Sure, you have to work at it, but there’s a big pay day for your time spent and no out of pocket.

I think your comment speaks directly to the backlash that all the over-hype about social media has caused.

Getting back to those blog numbers. Bloggers and mainstream media alike quote the studies about how few people read blogs that you mention in your comment. The problem with that is these numbers don’t include blog readership on traditional media sites like the New York Times or on other popular sites like Engadget which is viewed as a Tech site rather than a blog. I think this is a great example of how the two mediums are merging, just as you’re suggesting needs to happen.

Finally, for a look at how social media types are leveraging the connection between social and traditional media to the benefit of both watch episode 9c. This session discusses how two PR experts use online social networks like Facebook to gain exposure for their projects and clients on mainstream or traditional media.

Hope to talk with you soon! Don’t take my counterpoints as argumentative. One of the problems with blogs is that it’s hard at times to understand what people mean in their comments. Thank goodness we still get to interact on the phone and face-to-face – now that’s a social media. 🙂

Yes its true that social media has become important and many companies are looking for advertising their business using social media. Using social media take your internet business to the next level, it is mandatory that you go beyond the basic fundamental practices of internet marketing and venture into more advanced marketing concepts that are more rewarding.